WAR
"Yes!" says Dave, "I have got to pay! I took the goods—no matter that I got them like a thief in the night—I have got to pay for the stolen goods! By the Lord, I will!"
Then, after a good while, he changed back to the old way.
"Daddy," he says, very soft, "I've not been a good son to you. No, no, no! There is no use in saying that I have been. I see it all in this moment of revelation. I have been pleasant to you—gay—laughing—happy. But, ah, that is far from making a good son of any one. In fact, when I look back, I am obliged to confess that I have been no good to any one. I have just crowded every one else aside so that I might go laughing and happy through the world myself. Well, there always comes a day of reckoning for such. Mine is here. I think God means me to even up with the rest of my life. Well, He shall. I am willing. I must be."
"Why, Davy," says I, "what talk! You have kept my old heart bright and happy ever since
294
